America First, Last and Always!

Much has been said the past few days about the Trump trade tariffs. Ah, say that 5 times really fast! The whole world is upset with President Donald Trump about his plan to levee a 25% tariff on steel imports, and 10% on aluminum imports. Even many in the GOP are none too pleased with this decision. The European Union is already talking about retaliation, which is funny, as they have some of the highest tariffs on imported products on the planet. However, President Trump is correct when he said that no nation, no real-industrial-nation, can exist without a domestic steel industry.

Ill-informed pundits are attacking President Trump, often saying that he is doing too much to protect by-gone, 19th Century industries. That he should be focusing on protecting the AI, Artificial Intelligence, industry. This is a silly argument. For starters, President Trump is already fighting to protect American patents and intellectual property. This was one of the major reasons for withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific-Partnership treaty. He has also already publicly condemned China, and others, for ripping off our patents and new technologies.

Beyond that, these idiot pundits are missing a crucial point concerning these essential, ′19th Century′ industries. We have, as of yet, still not replaced steel nor aluminum in our array of products. Including buildings, bridges and other major construction projects. This silly argument could just as easily be applied to our agricultural industry. After all, we have been domesticating livestock and growing crops since 10,000 B.C.! Are these idiotic pundits suggesting that we no longer need domestic agriculture? Even if AI and robots plant and harvest all food, people still have to eat the food. I suppose they think we can get along fine importing all of our food and allow ourselves to be open to blackmail by international food producers, much as we have been from OPEC and oil exporting nations.

Currently, only about 3% of all steel and aluminum consumed by the United States is done so by our national defense industry. While it is very unlikely that we will have to fight another major, world war, requiring a massive transformation of our industrial base, this is not the point of the Trump trade tariffs. The actual point is to send a clear signal to the world that the days of America being a ′Chump Nation′ are over! Practically every country on the planet imposes heavy tariffs and regulations on American exports. Since the end of World War 2, our political leadership has went along with this, allowing other nations to take advantage of us. This policy has cost the United States millions of jobs and untold trillions of dollars over the past 6 or 7 decades.

President Trump won his office mainly because of his America First attitude. He smashed the ′Blue Wall′ of states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin for this very reason. He will probably win an easy reelection in 2020 as President Trump is proving that, unlike most politicians, he is delivering on his campaign promises. Indeed, a recent study by the Heritage Foundation shows that President Trump has already made good on some 64% of his promises in just the first year in office. He even surpassed the old record of 48% by Ronald Reagan!

Frankly, I do not believe that these tariffs are a big deal, nor will they last very long. They will force other countries to realize that a new day has dawned and that they must comply to the concept of ′Fair Trade′. That America will no longer tolerate being played as a chump. There may be some price increases for consumers, but those will be offset by more employment and higher wages. Despite all of the chatter, America is still the largest and wealthiest consumer market on the planet. Everybody else will need to dance to our tune at some point.

For more REAL NEWS and views, follow Andrew Zarowny on Facebook and on Twitter @mrcapitalist.